The Arab Revolt in Palestine, Part II
The Convoys. Defending against Arab Attackers 1936-1939
Visitors to Jerusalem today pass the skeletal remains of vehicles that fought to bring food and supplies to besieged Jewish Jerusalem during the 1948 war. The brave convoys were described by a young correspondent from Boston, named Robert F. Kennedy:
The Arab ambushes of Jewish and British vehicles was a tactic already well-practiced in the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt in Palestine. The British troops in Palestine provided armored escorts for the British and Jewish residents.
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| 1948 convoy ambushed (not from the Library of Congress collection) |
The City of Jerusalem has more Jews than Arabs but the immediate surrounding territory is predominately Arab. Through part of that hilly territory winds the narrow road that leads from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It is by this road that the Jewish population within Jerusalem must be supplied, but it is fantastically easy for the Arabs to ambush a convoy as it crawls along the difficult pass. On my trip from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem I saw grim realities of the fact.
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| Long line of Jewish buses returning from funeral under police escort in Jerusalem. 1936. The picture is taken east of the Old City walls. Note Absalom's tomb in the center, Church of All Nations on the left |
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| Jewish convoy on Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road escorted by police 1936 |
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| Group of (Jewish) Palestine Supernumerary Police with convoy on Tel Aviv- Jerusalem road 1936 |
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| American Colony members' car blocked by an Arab roadblock near Huwara (1938) |
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| The April 1948 convoy that was left unprotected. The remains of the convoy to Hadassah Hospital on Mt. Scopus. 79 people were massacred. (not from Library of Congress collection) |
The Arab Revolt in Palestine, Part III
The Railroads, Defending against Arab Attack 1936-1939
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| Derailed locomotive, 1936 |
The Arab attacks against the Jews and British in Palestine were frequently directed against motor vehicles and railroads. These pictures from the Library of Congress-American Colony collection show the extensive damage to the trains and the special measures taken by the British, including armed escorts.
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| Derailed train, 1936 |
The British government's annual reports on the Administration of Palestine and Transjordan lists monthly attacks against the rail system. According to the 1936 report, for instance,
"During June 1936 there were twelve acts of sabotage on the railway, and on two occasions trains were wrecked, one of the derailments near Lydda on the 26th June causing four deaths and considerable damage to the line and rolling stock. In consequence of this act of sabotage, which followed closely upon an organized attack on the Civil Airport at Lydda, a curfew was imposed on the town of Lydda."
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| British army guards with machine guns riding in a special armored rail car |
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| British marines guarding the trains |
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| Arab hostage on flatbed in front of vehicle checking the tracks for mines. (This photo was miscaptioned in the Library of Congress collection) |
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| Arab hostages sitting in a rail cart as British troops patrol the train tracks (1936). Not from the Library of Congress collection |
Labels: Arab revolt, British army, Railroad
Tragically, there is a long list of massacres of Jews over the last 100 years in Eretz Yisrael: 1929 in Hebron, 1929 in Safad, 1948 the Hadassah Hospital convoy, 1948 Kfar Etzion, 1972 Lod Airport, 1978 Coastal Road, Passover 2002 Park Hotel in Netanya, to list just a few.
But missing from many of the martyrs' lists and the Israeli public consciousness is the massacre of 19 Jews of Tiberias on October 2, 1938, in the height of the "Arab Revolt in Palestine." An organized force of Arab militiamen attacked the neighborhood from several directions.
Why is the account missing? Perhaps because of the absolute failure of British authorities and Orde Wingate's (Jewish) Special Night Squads to protect the Tiberias community. The Mandate was aflame, but virtually no one was guarding the 6,000 Jews of Tiberias. Just three weeks later, an Arab assassin gunned down the Jewish mayor of Tiberias, Zaki Alchadeff, in broad day light.
A lengthy annual report of the British Mandate, 1938, included these three sentences:
"On October 2nd there occurred a general raid on the Jewish quarter of Tiberias. It was systematically organized and savagely executed. Of the 19 Jews killed, including women and children, all save four were stabbed to death."
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The photographers from the American Colony photography department visited Hebron soon after the massacre in 1929 and produced the photos published here more than 80 years later.
It is quite possible that the photographers traveled to Tiberias after the massacre. A series of pictures were taken at the Scots Mission Hospital in Tiberias, but the photos are dated as "between 1934 and 1939." One picture shows "a little Jewish boy." Another picture shows two British soldiers. Other pictures show unidentified patients.
Is it possible that these were survivors of the October 1938 attack?
Other hospital pictures can be viewed here, here and here.
Read the words of The Last Survivor of the 1938 Tiberias Massacre.
Read Ha'aretz' account from October 3, 1938.
Does Anyone Know about the Massacre of 19 Jews in Tiberias in 1938?
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| Torched Tiberias synagogue (Not from the Library of Congress collection) |
Why is the account missing? Perhaps because of the absolute failure of British authorities and Orde Wingate's (Jewish) Special Night Squads to protect the Tiberias community. The Mandate was aflame, but virtually no one was guarding the 6,000 Jews of Tiberias. Just three weeks later, an Arab assassin gunned down the Jewish mayor of Tiberias, Zaki Alchadeff, in broad day light.
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| Original caption: "A little Jewish boy patient in the Scots Mission Hospital, Tiberias" |
A lengthy annual report of the British Mandate, 1938, included these three sentences:
"On October 2nd there occurred a general raid on the Jewish quarter of Tiberias. It was systematically organized and savagely executed. Of the 19 Jews killed, including women and children, all save four were stabbed to death."
Receive a Daily Picture by subscribing in the right sidebar and clicking "submit." Click on the photos to enlarge. Click on the captions to see the originals.
The photographers from the American Colony photography department visited Hebron soon after the massacre in 1929 and produced the photos published here more than 80 years later.
It is quite possible that the photographers traveled to Tiberias after the massacre. A series of pictures were taken at the Scots Mission Hospital in Tiberias, but the photos are dated as "between 1934 and 1939." One picture shows "a little Jewish boy." Another picture shows two British soldiers. Other pictures show unidentified patients.
Is it possible that these were survivors of the October 1938 attack?
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| Two British soldiers. Were they wounded in the Arab attack? |
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| Mother and baby, but no caption provided in the collection. A Jewish woman? |
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| Common grave in Tiberias for 19 victims |
Read the words of The Last Survivor of the 1938 Tiberias Massacre.
Read Ha'aretz' account from October 3, 1938.
The Arab Revolt was a particularly brutal conflict in which it was rarely possible to distinguish combatants from civilians, and atrocities were commonplace on both sides. Indeed, one of the rampages Segev attributes to Wingate occurred immediately after the slaughter of nineteen Jews in Tiberias, eleven of whom were children burned to death in their beds.
see MOren's article for example